ESCONDIDO: Woman admits to fatal 2007 crash

Tiffany St. Ives fled scene after striking Marlene Resendiz, 17

The former owner of a Valley Center animal sanctuary pleaded
guilty Friday to a 2007 hit-and-run crash that left an Escondido
teenager dead ---- but the driver might not serve prison time even
though she covered up her crime for more than two years.

Tiffany St. Ives, 54, admitted she fled the scene of the Nov.
24, 2007, fatal accident that killed Marlene Resendiz, 17. She hid
her involvement, getting the car fixed and repainted and trying to
sell it in Mexico.

The handyman who helped St. Ives eventually came forward, and
Escondido police arrested St. Ives on Feb. 9.

St. Ives pleaded guilty to the sole felony count she faced:
fleeing the scene of a fatal crash in which she had been involved.
She was not charged with causing Resendiz's death.

"The biggest problem is that we don't have the evidence from
2007," Deputy District Attorney Roy Lai said. "It's difficult to go
back without evidence."

Lai added that St. Ives faced the harshest charge the district
attorney's office was able to file.

St. Ives will be sentenced June. 7.

Technically, there were no sentencing deals in place when St.
Ives pleaded guilty. But in accepting the guilty plea, Superior
Court Judge Daniel Goldstein indicated he was considering a
sentence of a year or less in county jail because she has no
criminal history, according to attorneys on the case.

"Is there justice?" Santacruz said. "We've gotten her to plead
guilty, but she is not being punished to the full extent."

Santacruz, 28, said she felt "a knot in my stomach" as she
listened to St. Ives' voice for the first time; in court, the
defendant repeatedly answered "yes" to the perfunctory questions a
judge asks all criminal defendants when they plead guilty.

Aside from the criminal case, Resendiz's family filed a $75
million civil suit earlier this month against St. Ives for wrongful
death.

Lai, who prosecuted the case, said St. Ives was behind the wheel
of her car when it slammed into the teen as she crossed an
Escondido street.

The car traveled 400 feet before Resendiz rolled off the hood,
Lai said.

Resendiz died on the street. St. Ives kept going.

Prosecutor Lai said St. Ives enlisted her handyman to clean the
car with bleach, fix it with junkyard parts and repaint it from
black to gold. However, Lai said, the handyman refused the driver's
request to sell the car in Mexico.

After two years of silence, the handyman came forward to
Escondido police.

St. Ives' attorney, Brad Patton, said his client "went into
panic mode" with "intense fright and fear" after striking Resendiz
as the teenager crossed Grand Avenue at Fairdale Avenue.

"She didn't know the young woman had died, but when she found
out, it just intensified her fear," Patton said. "She feels
terrible about the fact that this young woman died."

St. Ives was not charged with killing Resendiz, only with
fleeing the scene of the fatal crash. If St. Ives had stopped at
the scene and was determined not to have been at fault for the
crash, she might not have faced any charges, Patton said.